3 ms·
I had the same experience around the same time (though I'm a bit older). LFS really helped me understand the relationship between the bootloader, kernel, init s
by organsnyder 3y ago
I had the same experience around the same time (though I'm a bit older). LFS really helped me understand the relationship between the bootloader, kernel, init system, and all of the various daemons and tools that make up a complete system.
From there I moved to Gentoo, and then eventually to Ubuntu and other batteries-included distros. But the knowledge I gained from LFS is still a foundational part of my skillset, even though my roles have been more dev-focused than ops/infra.
- jonhohle 3y agoUntil I moved to FreeBSD in the mid 2000s I ran Gentoo primarily. Even though it had a bit more hand holding than LFS, it still taught me a lot and getting to choose implementations allowed consideration of design choices (cron, mail, syslog, etc.). I’ve tried to return a few times but it’s a bit different now and I’m happy enough with FreeBSD that I don’t have much place for it. I do wish more embedded distros would have started with Gentoo (specifically ARM SBCs).
- bombcar 3y agoI think one of the advantages of Gentoo or LFS is you get an “introduction” to a bunch of the various parts, so that when you need to change something in the future you know where to start looking.
- agumonkey 3y agoSomehow LFS didn't help me understand the various subsystems... all I remember is long sed patches and compilation logs It did teach me how subtle a running stable OS is underneath though, as, after my first standalone boot, I could enjoy a partially working TCP stack: elinks could browser, curl couldn't, irssi sometimes, all of this with random terminal display codes being inserted.